Pencil Shavings

Getting Excited

Following a blog by Wil Wheaton, in which he exhorted me to "Get Excited and Make Things" this week, I decided to do just that.

Well, OK, I had already made the stuff, but I decided to embrace the future, (the future being Print on Demand technology) and set up an Imagekind gallery to create and sell prints of my best/most popular/favourite pieces of work.

OK - so, so far I only have three pieces up, but I will have more soon, well as soon as all of you tell me what your favourite pieces are!  (feel free to fill up the comments section - it will give me something to do tomorrow! and have a look at the website and EBSQ gallery as well)

As for the creating something new... well I'm closing the Cafe Press shop in 5 days (that would be the end of the month!)  When it re-opens there will be something new there that I will tell you all about (it will be all about "Getting Excited and Making Things"), but meanwhile the stuff that is in there is going away, quite possibly forever, so get it while you can!

Meanwhile go have a look at the prints and remember that if you enter the code: "Thanksgiving09" you will get 25% off framing until Sunday.

Electronica - Not really from the 365 Days of Art

 Remember a short while ago I posted a link to an iPhone/iTouch app that was called Sketchbook Mobile?

I said that I would post some of the sketches that I did while I was on the train, and waiting for the kids at swimming lessons.

Some are caricatures, some abstract, some just weird. 

But they are fun to do and I have a feeling that given more time with it I could have a lot of fun making all kinds of weird things.

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Typepad says if you click on the thumbnails it will show the pictures... let's see how that works! 

365 Days of Art Day 117 - Switching Mediums

 I know that I'm pathetically behind in posting my work for the 365 days -between technical difficulties and the demands of my pre-halloween family, I just couldn't make the time to blog work.  My commitment to the work remained, but the thought of writing out a blog, at least a blog that was good enough for you, was too much.  

But I'm back in the saddle soto speak - so brace yourselves for a flurry of posting and some no so inspired art, but it is what I have been doing.

After working in Conte and Pastel for the better part of a week I decided that I would try to transfer what I had learned to Watercolour.

I spent my hour of art trying to work out how to get the hard/soft textures of pastel to work with wet paint. 

I wound up using my Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks to add some of the lines and texture that I had started to get used to.  It's still not quite what I want, and I am missing detail in the hand that would make it more lifelike, as well as my perspective got skewed (again) on this one.  It's practice and practice and practice that is going to make me better - but I have allowed a lot of time.  365 days actually.

An Extra Hour... to draw?

I slept in this morning, a bit, with a sick sneezy little girl stuck to me like glue.  Poor thing, she made it through Halloween and almost immediately got sick.

She's sitting on the couch at this moment watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in her Sleeping Beauty Costume (and a box of tissues!)

I"m going to try and use the extra hour that I didn't get to use as sleep, to get some drawing done.  I really miss my reference library that is on my laptop!  Hopefully it'll all be fixed and back home by mid week, until then, my pain is your pain for the hour of art.  I might be able to do a work around on the kids computer, I just need more coffee and a little quiet time to figure it out.

I also need to get a few stacks of prints signed... But I'll wait until the sugar rush from the kids candy wears off before I even consider that!

So, good morning folks, enjoy your extra hour, however you spend i!

Technology and the Artist/Blogger

Well, my laptop had an "incident".  

For some reason the hinge cracked on it. 

It seems that is the very spot where information from the keyboard goes to the screen/wide world/what ever, and I am stuck now using the kids computer.

Alas all the pictures from this weeks 365 Days of Art progress are on the laptop.  They are backed up on the server, but, unless I want to transfer all of that stuff to the kids computer as my "restored" computer I can't access it.

I know I could re-take all the pics, and I might.  But I'm going to give the nice guys at Apple a crack at fixing it on the weekend and deal with all the other administrative back log that I am being slowly buried under!

Meanwhile I'm going to give you a link!

This is the new Program I've been playing with while I'm out and about!  It's insanely fun!

It's called Sketchbook Mobile and when things sort themselves out with my technology I'll post some of the quick sketches I've done with it!

OK - back to invoicing and accounting and generally messing about with numbers (now I know why I became and artist!)

GAH! I Hate Technology!

My photos of my work are still being distorted.    I'm so frustrated. 

Of course I don't really hate technology.  I actually love technology.  In fact I'm such a geek about Mac products that my picture is probably in an assembly factory somewhere with a little shrine built around it.

But the frustration I'm feeling about my distorted image problem is also very real.  I don't know if it is iPhoto or my camera, or something that is getting lost in the technobabble between the two.

Luckily (or maybe not) the kids are off for five days... and if anyone can solve this problem it's two precocious elementary school kids!  I'll do some tests with different computers and different cameras and I hope I'll have some art up to show you soon.

Meanwhile... I would like to show you this piece.   I know that you may have seen it already, but I am still so damn proud of this piece.  It's called Autumnal, and is done in acrylic  - with just Paynes gray and white .  It took me a couple of days to finish it, and every stroke was joyful to me.  It is very popular in my Artfire Studio, but has yet to find a buyer.  In a bit of shameless self promotion, I would love for this piece to for find a home for the holidays.

A Strange Notion

As an artist I am used to spending time with myself, in my head, facing my canvas, listening to my thoughts on what I want to create.  As an artist who is not represented by a gallery I need to be outgoing, talking myself and my work up, in order to sell my work to support my ability to make more art.

It's like having a split personality.  If I didn't enjoy spending time with myself I doubt I could make it as an artist.  Talking to others is not my strong suit, and talking about myself to others, well it makes me stammer, blush, and feel incredibly foolish and arrogant.

But, I must market myself.  There is no one else who is as invested in my success as I am, and no one who is motivated to promote me, except for myself.  There are friends and fellow artists who will link to my site or mention me in passing.  But it is really up to me to do the legwork of getting my images out there where the right buyer might see it.

That is another difficult reality of being an artist.  Very often I am waiting for a singular, unique person to whom my work whispers, to be inspired to own it for themselves.

So I am utilizing social media.  I Tweet.  I Blog.  I hand out cards with my web address on it.  And now I have created a Facebook Fan Page.  It really goes against my nature to have a "fan page".  I mean really who do I think I am that I might actually have fans?  Maybe it is the Canadian sensibility that I was raised with, that says that calling attention to yourself is arrogant.  Perhaps it is the humility, that my  mother taught me, as a virtue.

But the reality is that unless people get to know me, they will likely not want buy into my view of the world.  So there it is.  The "fan page".  It is with a great deal of blushing and stammering that I even mention it to you.  What happens next is anyone's guess.

The Sacrifices I Make For My Kids

Later this week I'll be out shopping for a new iMac for the family computer.  We have a clunky old Toshiba laptop set up on the computer desk in the livingroom, but it is such an awful computer and the kids have such a hard time getting it to do and go where they want it to.

At school they have iMacs.  I have a an AirBook.  It just seems like the logical thing to get a computer they are familiar with.  Money is a bit tight right now, but school is important and my oldest needs to have more computer skills than she does right now.  So the "family" computer is about to be born and I'm crossing my fingers that they are still more interested in playing pretend games than playing on the computer in a month or two.

Curse of the Modern Age

My husband likes to nag me electronically to do things.  He likes to send me e-mails, insert things into my computer calendar, and text me his sweet nagging messages about things he would like me to do.  This is very convenient for him, as it can keep him miles out of range from the arc of a swung frying pan.

There can, however, be draw backs to this electronic marital communication.  Very occasionally he might just send a text message to his work colleague informing them that their cat's litter box needs to be cleaned.

Geez – You Guys!!!

I have to say that I'm totally blown away, again, by the huge jump in readers I had again yesterday.  I don't know what is bringing you all here, but I'm delighted, and feel an inordinate need to write something worth reading.

Of course it never fails that when you feel the need to write something great the only thing that comes to mind is Fred Flintstone talk “Yabba frabba nabba, Rabba!”

Deeper introspection tells me that I shouldn't try to change what I'm already doing, since you are all here now, why get all dressed up when you've already seen me in my pj's?  But I do want to let you know that I can write a little better than I have been.  Lately I've been writing on the fly as I struggle with the commitments I have as a mom, wife and artist.  I have often let this blog fall to the bottom of my list, and I have taken my readership for granted.

I'm sorry I did that, because having you read my blog and view the things I have to show you is important to me. Not as important as chocolate, but close, really!

The Member to Member Class on Abstract Art is going well.  I'm really happy with it actually, and I hope it continues on with this nice conversation for the next two weeks.

Yesterday and today we talked about creating an abstract painting, and I started this one as an example for the class, it's called Mandala:  Joy and I'll show it to you the final version and list it in my ArtFire Studio as soon as the last touches are on it.  I love the colours of this piece, and it really does make me feel joyful.  Next we are going to be talking about seeing the abstract shapes in the every day.  Feel free to drop in on the class and follow along.